This is a really excellent comment. I would go further and point out that it’s slightly missing-the-point to apply harmonic variation to a tone-row structure. Serialism, as practiced by the big three, represented in part a rejection of harmonic variation and a renewed focus on counterpoint instead of harmony (especially the primacy of the tone-row variational operations of transposition, inversion, and retrograde motion, which seem to be ignored entirely in the video—or at least in the first 12 minutes, which is all I’ve made it through, admittedly).
None of this is to say that one can’t build tonal structures over a tone-row, or engage in harmonic variation; some of my favorite compositions do exactly that. It’s just worth keeping in mind that this has relatively little to do with serial composition as practiced by it’s originators, who really were trying for a genuinely atonal approach.
(If I had to guess regarding the quote, I would say Berg or Webern, but I don’t have an actual reference available either).
"Serialism, as practiced by the big three, represented in part a rejection of harmonic variation and a renewed focus on counterpoint instead of harmony"
This is true, specially in Webern's compositions. The canonical (pun intended) example is Webern's Symphony op. 21, which is a four voice cannon:
None of this is to say that one can’t build tonal structures over a tone-row, or engage in harmonic variation; some of my favorite compositions do exactly that. It’s just worth keeping in mind that this has relatively little to do with serial composition as practiced by it’s originators, who really were trying for a genuinely atonal approach.
(If I had to guess regarding the quote, I would say Berg or Webern, but I don’t have an actual reference available either).